NSA controls global internet traffic via private fiber-optic cables

Deals brokered between federal agents and foreign corporations have allowed the United States government to easily intercept and interpret a vast swath of communication data sent around the world, new documents reveal.

In a National Security Agency slideshow obtained by The
Washington Post and attributed to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the
US government encouraged analysts to tap into an array of
underwater, fiber-optic cables that serve as conduits for around
99 percent of the world’s internet and phone traffic.

The report, published by the Post’s Craig Timberg and Ellen
Nakashima, explains how NSA slides leaked by Snowden reveal yet
another surveillance program undertaken as an alleged counter
terrorism measure but at the cost of putting the privacy of
millions, if not billions, of people at risk.

According to that report, the US government sent a team of
attorneys from a number of alphabet soup agencies — including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Departments of Defense,
Justice and Homeland Security — to oversee post-9/11 efforts that
would ensure most intelligence sent throughout the world could be
collected by American agents.

That much, the Post alleges, was accomplished by maintaining
“an internal corporate cell of American citizens with
government clearances” within the ranks of the foreign
companies that control the fiber-optic cables carrying most
telecommunications data around the world. One of those entities
was Asia’s Global Crossing, and the US moved quickly to
infiltrate its roster of employees shortly after 9/11.

The post writes that the “Network Security Agreement” signed
between Global Crossing and the US in 2003 was one of the first
major contractors giving the US the power to tap into these major
telecom pipes, and in the decade since countless others have been
authorized. In that instance and others, federal attorneys
cooperating under the name “Team Telecom” compelled foreign
owners of these cables to comply with American requests for
information.

In the case of the Global Crossing contract, the US had the firm
sign off on a deal that assured American intelligence agents
could call up the company and be at a US-based “Network
Operations Center” in only 30 minutes to monitor and collect
data. And while laws exist in order to allegedly provide
safeguards to protect the privacy of Americans, the Post says
that doesn’t stop American agencies from being able to collect
that data nonetheless.

“As people worldwide chat, browse and post images through
online services, much of the information flows within the
technological reach of US surveillance. Though laws, procedural
rules and internal policies limit how that information can be
collected and used, the data from billions of devices worldwide
flow through Internet choke points that the United States and its
allies are capable of monitoring,” the Post writes. Along
with the PRISM program disclosed by Snowden last month, tapping
into these cables gives the US the ability to monitor essentially
any communication that passes near the US.

The Post notes that both PRISM and the “Upstream” program that
pulls from underwater cables intend to only target communications
in which one part is believed to be outside of the US, but
government agencies are unwilling to say how many Americans have
incidentally or inadvertently entered the radar of the NSA.
Previously, though, members of the United States Senate have used
phrases like “profoundly appalled” to predict how
Americans would likely react if they knew the full extent and
scope of their country’s surveillance programs.

In the wake of Snowden’s disclosures that first began surfacing
last month, the NSA, President Barack Obama and his
administration have all celebrated the surveillance programs as
necessary implements in the war against terror. The White House
maintains that the practices are legally authorized through both
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the post-9/11
PATRIOT Act, but continue to draw criticism from the public and
politicians alike. Snowden, 30, is seeking asylum to avoid
prosecution in the US where he is accused under the Espionage
Act.